moor \moor\,
verb:
1. To fix firmly; secure.
2. To secure (a ship, boat, dirigible, etc.) in a particular place, as by cables and anchors or by lines.
3. To moor a ship, small boat, etc.
4. To be made secure by cables or the like.
noun:
1. The act of mooring.
Being anxious to remove some of our goods before night, the boys ran off to fetch the sledge; while I, having no anchor, contrived to moor the boats by means of some of the heavy blocks of iron we had brought.
-- Johann David Wyss, "The Swiss Family Robinson"
Then the divers will moor it to the bottom — we drove the piles into the ocean floor 20 meters deep when we did the 63.
-- Eugene McCreary, "Madame President"
Though moor gained popularity in the 1490s, the term originates from the Old English more from the maerelsrāp rope used for securing or 'mooring' ships.
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